Anneliese Dickman's Blogs

Milwaukee is often called ground zero for education reform, and for good reason. We have been on the forefront of reforms such as budget decentralization, school-to-work, neighborhood schools, parental choice, charter schools and, the most recent...

Faced with its toughest budget ever, Colorado Springs, Colorado, has made service cuts so severe they've garnered national (and international) media attention from outlets ranging from CNN to the Wall Street Journal. The stories have each been...

Over the past few days, four former MPS superintendents have met in two public forums to share the lessons they have learned about running the state's largest school district. In both forums a recurring theme was Howard Fuller's contention that: "I...

The winter 2010 People Speak Poll, conducted in conjunction with the Center for Urban Initiatives and Research at UWM and The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee, focuses on water issues including quality, quantity, governance, and economic...

How to define and measure poverty in the U.S. has long been an issue of debate. This is not an esoteric argument--most federal and state entitlement and benefit programs tie eligibility to need using the official measure of poverty. Any move to...

In the Forum's 12th annual census of schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), we found that recent regulation changes have had an impact on the number of schools participating in the program. Between the 2008-09 and...

The Forum has done a considerable amount of work over the past two years analyzing the fiscal health of the city and county of Milwaukee. Our research has caused us to be concerned about the ability of local governments to continue to provide the...

Governor Doyle has not been shy about his desire to see the mayor of Milwaukee governing the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) district as part of an effort to make Wisconsin more competitive for new federal K-12 education dollars. The dollars at stake...

A new report by the Alliance for Excellent Education estimates the economic costs to cities of having high drop-out rates. In the four-county Milwaukee metro area, it is estimated that cutting the drop-out rate in half, or having an additional 3,200...

The second installment of the results of the autumn People Speak poll, conducted in partnership with the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee's Center for Urban Initiatives and Research and The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee, focuses on...